Her Private Life

Mediocre, not memorable, but hey I sill liked it!

I’ll just lay it out straight, if I were to subjectively give this drama a rating it would be somewhere within 6-7/10 stars. I was occasionally uninterested, the product placement was PAINFULLY obvious, and half (if not more) of the drama’s screen time was basically just the two leads’ pretty faces.

But I’m a sucker for pretty faces lmao. All the characters were generally likable, and the rabid romance fan in me loved all the sickly sweet moments. The best aspect of the script is probably the honest and open communication between ML and FL, and I must say it was refreshing to see them both acknowledge their mistakes and quickly apologize within the same half hour of screen time. Also, I’m not gonna lie Mr. Ryan Gold is an absolute dream boat.

There were some moments where I genuinely laughed, and others when my heart fluttered a bit. Because I overall enjoyed watching it, I’m giving it an 8/10.

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Faceplant

This should have been a better show. "Her Private Life" is a couple of better casting decisions and half a worthy script away from being a really lovely romantic comedy.

Park Min Young is an unquestionable talent with a particular panache for comedy and the show is marvelous so long as it centers around her Curator Sung Duk Mi. It helps that she's regularly accompanied by the sublime Park Jin Joo and a solid though underutilized Ahn Bo Hyun. The only moments where Park Min Young is outshone is by Kim Sun Young. She is spectacular here.

And the first half of "Her Private Life" is welcomingly center around Duk Mi, her fandom for One's Cha Shi Ahn (who presumably is a better singer than actor), her rivalry with Kim Bo Ra's fangirl Cindy and the fake then real romance with new director Ryan Gold as portrayed by Kim Jae Wook. But as with most dramas, the production can only keep the two leads apart for so long and once the inevitable comes to pass, the project's flaws overwhelm the positives.

Plenty of criticism should be directed at the meandering, nonsensical storyline. It's deserved. There's opportunities to allow the outstanding supporting cast to share some spotlight, but it's completely ignored except as momentary throw-ins in the final episode. Particularly frustrating is that a relationship between Kim Bo Ra and Ahn Bo Hyun was happening but it was literally given less than a minute of airtime. It's a massive gaffe to not give these two a sizable amount of attention.

But it's a casting blunder more than anything that torpedoes "Her Private Life". Kim Jae Wook fits the tall and pretty profile, but he is totally lost trying to portray anything beyond mild annoyance or complete boredom. For around nine episodes, that's the extent of the demands - looked annoyed, looked bored and be photographed with Park Min Young. This much works. But when Kim Jae Wook's Ryan Gold has to step forward in act two and the character is navigating childhood traumas, the show sinks, quickly and irreversibly.

Add (G)I-DLE's "Help Me" to every playlist possible. It's one of the catchiest pop songs on any soundtrack anywhere. But don't put "Her Private Life" on a watchlist.

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Trite plot, boring developments, predictable outcomes. I started watching months ago, and as much as I somehow managed to plod along to the end of episode fifteen- well, I cannot bring myself to watch the final one; it feels like a waste of time (I only got through the fifteenth episode because I just have no notion of doing things by halves... but this one is proving to be quite the hard task to carry through).

Park Min Young seems to be stuck in the same role over and over again, and this whole set-up of the annoying to-be-caring boss who orders her around as she talks back at any given chance has gotten old quite some time ago if you ask me. I find it irritating and see it as an attempt at following in "What's Wrong With Secretary Kim?"'s steps in order to get the same success as a result but it just doesn't make the cut; as silly as that was as well- it was supposed to be perceived as that because it was pure comedy while this one is not funny nor does it come off as purposely silly but rather- ridiculous.

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A romcom drama that's very much 'decent'.

The chemistry between the leads is alright (not as good as in What's Wrong With Secretary Kim). The plot is very much standard fare, with every cliché you've seen a dozen times.
The idol fandom topic is done tastefully, but doesn't have the same effort put into it as say Reply 1997.
The supporting characters are alright: sometimes funny, sometimes not, but never obnoxious.
There is an average amount of filler scenes and plots.
A perhaps average amount of product placement, but in a more stupidly obvious way than you'd expect.
The OST is okay as well (but nothing I'll remember for months).
I didn't sit in agony for hours waiting for any painful plot arcs to end, either. In a way, I'm most thankful for the scarcity of pointlessly negative story elements, with the writers instead going for themes like happiness and healing.
All in all: no serious complaints. Serves its purpose as a fluffy, no-stress show.

On Netflix and such you have content missing compared to the TV version: https://kisskh.at/32293-her-private-life#comment-12329955

The special you can watch either before the show or after a few episodes; it has some minor spoilers regarding characters and plots introduced a bit after the start.

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This drama has similar story like what's wrong with Secretary Kim , both the lead actors are related and known each other from their childhood and they get to know it in last two episodes but this fact doesn't play very important role here. I love park min young but here she acted more cute than she is and the female lead seemed to be more in love....it's very much relatable with fangirls like us and especially when you have ONE as idol, but in the end it's worth to watch.
Sorry but don't read the below


This drama has similar story like what's wrong with Secretary Kim , both the lead actors are related and known each other from their childhood and they get to know it in last two episodes but this fact doesn't play very important role here. I love park min young but here she acted more cute than she is and the female lead seemed to be more in love....it's very much relatable with fangirls like us and especially when you have ONE as idol, but in the end it's worth to watch.
This drama has similar story like what's wrong with Secretary Kim , both the lead actors are related and known each other from their childhood and they get to know it in last two episodes but this fact doesn't play very important role here. I love park min young but here she acted more cute than she is and the female lead seemed to be more in love....it's very much relatable with fangirls like us and especially when you have ONE as idol, but in the end it's worth to watch.

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Should've kept it short.

Talking about the drama, I felt the storyline became boring when Shi An's identity was revealed because, for me, Lee Sol's identity was the intriguing part. After it was revealed, I found myself skipping through scenes. The leads were sexy and had some hot, steamy kisses and romance, but the series could have been compelled into 12 episodes. Too much sugar isn't good for health either, so when the romance took over, I personally got bored.

Talking about acting, their acting was too much at times, it didn't felt natural or convincing ,could have been much better. Ironically, their fake relationship was more convincing than their real one, to be honest.

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There was such a stark difference in the expressions on my face pre- and post-getting-together for the main characters. In the beginning, I absolutely loved the premise of a fangirl trying to live as a normal muggle, as if unaware of idols, to not be looked at as a freak. At one level or another, who can't relate to wanting to talk about your undying love for something or someone, but doing so is basically social and career suicide?

What I noticed, though, was when the main romance was basically resolved, it just became about the romance. I was disappointed with the number of original plot lines that never paid off, mainly related to her secret identity as a fan site manager, who would find out, and how that would affect her relationship with the idol she's obsessed with. Instead, we delved into some really unnecessary alleyways to look through the plot dumpster, so unnecessary they resolved themselves within the same episode.

Probably to kill time? They should have made better use of it.

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As a avid kdrama watcher, I found this series frustrating to the core. Ok so the review contains spoiler or not depending upon how well you know the clichés of k dramas. Story started out pretty normal and obviously cast is too impressive and beautiful for this story. All the clichés like falling, getting wet in rain, saving from rash driving, jealous with no sense second leads, eye candies, a child actor thrown for cuteness may be, hate love relationship, stupid misunderstanding which could be resolved if they talk or at least let other talk, shouting moms, non existing dads, birth secrets and on and on. But worst part is PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Its understandable if few products which are being endorsed by actors come sneakily in the drama. But every other scene has product placement which can not be ignored at all. From makeup, drinks, coffee to even flour and vacuum cleaner and watches, jewellery, energy bars, special women diet the list goes on. Final verdict is if you are not great fan of actors, please do not watch. You will be frustrated with no end

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Great chemistry, unfortunate lack of depth

The chemistry between Park Min Young and Kim Jae Wook was sizzling in this drama, and there was more skinship than in most dramas, which was a treat. The leads was really amazing together, but the first half of the story was filled with dumb misunderstandings with very little substance. I am not a fan of silly circumstantial humor and the first half was filled with it. What was really grating was that some serious dramatic revelations were introduced in the very last episodes. The show should have started with the end bits and established the deep histories and relationships from the beginning instead of relying on gimmicks. The huge dramatic revelation near the end that concerns Duk Mi was just glossed over because of the wasted time at the beginning. It was simply swept under the rug.

Also, if we are to believe that Duk Mi is an intelligent, independent woman, then her side gig should have been something with substance, not being a fangirl. This didn't add much to the story, except for creating more silly circumstantial humor. We should have also explored her career and what made her successful as a curator instead of having Ryan's story take over. This had potential but the beginning was wasted.

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I thought the concept could be interesting and the first couple of episodes were OK. I soon found my interest waning as I became less and less interested in the lead characters. I just didn't feel any chemistry between them.

The chemistry between the two Parks fangirling was far more convincing than the main couple's push and pull.

Attractive stars, boring story, anytime anything interesting happens they just back off next scene.
If you are a fanboi or girl of the leads it might be worth watching but for me...

Got to episode five, got bored, skipped through six, gave up...

Already forgotten ...

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